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There are muscles in an awful lot of places that dont normaly get used. (ouch).,

and an awful lot of people need to review the principals behind aikido
(Quote: ...Aikido also says that you must be responsible for not inflicting unnecessary damage upon your attacker.... -A. Westbrook in the Dynamic Sphere. Yeah that includes your practice partner. again ouch. unpleasent practice last night).

Mine came about 2 minutes ago as I started writing this. I had noticed recently that my connection with uke had shifted towards more focus on connecting with their energy. A more external focus of blending with the process. What I noticed was missing in that was my connecting with them in a loving manner. In other words, opening the heart.

What I just now decided is that maybe that isn't really the space I'm looking for either. Maybe the person I need to connect with is me.

Oh well, this week me, next week them, the week after that it'll be the universe and then we start all over again.

I've been feeling a lot more these days that it's perfectly OK not to be able to do something I'm currently working on. It's not quite a recent revelation, but I'm getting back to it these days more and more...

An enhanced respect for my instructors and sempai relating to the amount of time and energy they have devoted to aikido and our dojo over all these years. They truly amaze and humble me beyond words...

Long toenails and the back of Sensei's heel don't make for a particularly harmonious match either (my toenail, uh, "submitted").

Actually, my most recent revelation during practice is that I needed more time to recuperate from a back injury before I started doing breakfalls again, and that was over four years ago. I hope that I can return to Aikido in the next year or so, I miss it.

I found out during my first test about a week ago that only when we're pushed to the very limits of death, that we can see the true joy of life. However, my test also showed me that no matter how far we may have progressed, we still have oh so much more to go...

---
Nick Porter
"Do not fall into the trap of the artisan who boasts twenty years of experience, when in fact he has had only one year of experience-- twenty times."

I have started trying to stay in a state of potential when executing techniue. In this state everything is in balance rather than manifesting. Make the "doing" part of the technique be as little as possible as opposed to the "not doing". It is the "not doing part" that is not resistable.

Having trained quite a bit with Gleason Sensei over the last few years I was impressed with his recoiunting of the statement by his teacher Yamaguchi sensei. Yamaguchi Sensei said that the amount of force used in a technique should not be more than just the weight of your arms falling on your partner. I have been trying to get there and it has changed my Aikido dramatically.

I'm also thinking about how footwork generates the power that travels through the body to the point of contact. Also, it was said to me a few weeks back that footwork doesn't necessarily entail having to move the feet...

Yamaguchi Sensei said that the amount of force used in a technique should not be more than just the weight of your arms falling on your partner.

Right on right on right on!!!

I would add to that by saying that -in part- this is because it's the "setup" that's most important at the technical level - meaning, if the process leading up to the technique is "correct" then the actual execution of the technique should take almost nothing at all, it is the natural outcome of that process.

i think my biggest revelation is the sacrifice my instructor made for all the beginners he had in class, all the time he invested in me when I was a beginner and every other beginner, when he could be concentrating on his own training but, in turn took more time to instill basics into me. This in turn I put into my own teaching, either in my own classes or at seminars, look for the newer mudansha, they need more assistance than the yudansha, who sometimes train for themselves. It's the giving back that insures the future of Aikido.

I've learnt that it takes a lot of time to to add up all the bits of aikido into one complete technique; and it then takes a lot of time to think about how to deconstruct this so you can teach other people how to build up their technique.

I've also learnt that, when you take up the hem on your own hakama there is a lot more sewing than you first realise.